longtime are in washington d.c. and here is what's coming up tonight on the big picture if mitt romney is elected president in november we could see him old one of the most radical supreme courts in american history discuss that with the publisher of the nation magazine dreams of bennett who also you'd think stealing the election would be a pretty complicated job really not in fact it only takes nine easy steps to get a journalist greg palast tell us just how easy it is for republicans to steal the election this november and you're one of the in when you're one of the most crime

ridden cities in america in your face you know mountains of debt what do you do to save money while laid off your police officers of course what the heck is going on in camden new jersey. you need to know this back in june chief justice john roberts cast the deciding judgment they could do citing vote up holding obamacare as constitutional and triggered a near mutiny on his right flank on the court right after the decision roberts left the country and went to malta to dodge all the criticism you knew he was going to get from conservatives in the coming days and weeks and that's why the last supreme court term and now three months later a new supreme court term kicks off today in the obamacare is not on the docket this term a bunch of other high profile crucially important cases are first on the list affirmative action for college admissions arguments in fisher versus the university of texas

are scheduled to begin on october tenth and the court could strike down racial or economic preferences in college admissions and given the court's five to four conservative advantage it's likely they'll do just that next up the court will weigh. and on whether or not corporations can be liable for human rights abuses overseas namely whether or not royal dutch petroleum to be sued for being complicit in atrocities committed by the nigerian government the court is also scheduled to hear cases about drug sniffing dogs and warrantless searches and legal questions concerning the foreign intelligence surveillance act known as pfizer which allows the u.s. government to eavesdrop on overseas communications are expected to be addressed by the hoary high court as well. those are some of the cases on the court's schedule this term but there are two other very important cases the high court will likely hear as well vs marriage equality several lower courts are now struck down the defense of marriage act as unconstitutional and in the supreme court will have the

final say on whether a ban on same sex marriage violates the civil rights of gays and lesbians and second voter suppression idealogues in the last two years republican state legislatures across the country have passed a series of voter suppression id laws that are now being challenged in courts around the country because it's been proven that such laws disproportionately affect minority voters here's paul way rick one of the founders of the american legislative exchange council alec which has sponsored so much of this voter suppression legislation this is paul way way back in one thousand nine hundred eighty speaking to a group of christian republicans on why republicans should want to suppress the vote. how many of our christians have what i call the syndrome good government they want everybody to vote. i don't want everybody to vote elections. by a majority of people they never have been from the beginning of our country and

they are not no amount of leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up only populist goes. attorney general eric holder has called such laws poll taxes which are explicitly prohibited by the constitution the debate over voting rights has become partisan with mostly republicans pushing for more voter suppression laws and democrats fighting back again with a five to four conservative advantage on the supreme court really a republican advantage the right's efforts to kick democratic voters off the rolls could be up al this term will once again highlight the incredible amount of power the supreme court has seized over our government and thus over our lives. what was once considered the third of three co-equal branches of government has become the most powerful branch of government a mini royal court if you will able to strike down laws and create new laws on its own overriding congress and the president and all without any input from we the people and that brings us to this year's presidential election between barack obama

and mitt romney are currently for sitting supreme court justices over the age of seventy three over the age of seventy five which means we could see some new supreme court members appointed by whoever is elected in november which means the next president barack obama or mitt romney will play a critical role in shaping the direction this nation goes for at least the next generation through their supreme court appointees an obama victory could tilt the court back to the center preserving rulings like roe v wade and perhaps in the future doing away with rulings like citizens united on the other hand a romney victory could strengthen the fringe rights harsh majority on the court which already has been very good to corporate interests and move us all closer and closer to a nation truly captive to corporate rule so say what you want about choice of candidates in this presidential election and whether there's a real difference between the two candidates the reality is that with this election we're going to see profound consequences on the supreme court and thus

a profound impact on the nation that will last long after the next four years now for more on this katrina vanden heuvel joins me she's a journalist of the publisher of the nation magazine its current issue is on the one percent court katrina welcome thank you tom thanks for joining us there are a lot of progress is upset with the president mostly about foreign policy issues how do you make the argument he must be reelected for the sake of the high court. well as you said you have four justices over the age of seventy the next president will likely have the ability to appoint three four judges and shape the future of the court shape the future of our democracy shape the future of this country for generations to come you know as bill moyers writes in the introduction to our special issue the one percent court at a time of partisan gridlock in our government the court has become the decider and we have seen with this extremist court with this roberts court

a court that has whittled away at the rights of ordinary people and enhance the rights of corporations so that we're you know a country of by and for the one percent not of by for the people and with mitt romney resurrecting robert bork a man who was so extremist in one thousand nine hundred seven that the senate rejected him a man who opposes roe v wade who doesn't believe equal protection clause applies to women who has tried to suppress voting rights didn't support the civil rights act of one thousand nine hundred sixty four and believes corporations are people you will see a far more extremist court that i think will damage ordinary people who are trying to organize who are trying to get access to the courts for class action suits and of course will unleash even more polluted money into an already polluted political system just a few months before richard nixon put him on the u.s. supreme court louis paul infamously or famously wrote

a memo to his neighbor and close friend the president of the chairman of the u.s. chamber of commerce. basically the conservative takeover of america and a big piece of that was taking over the courts were seen increasingly court elections judicial lections in the united states in many cases that didn't used to be elections in many of the states now they're being elected and that were never partisan before that are now having enormous amounts of money pumped into it this goes beyond just the supreme court does it not katrina. i think it. we're looking at the culmination of the lewis powell memo. you he laid out a blueprint for the right wing takeover of our institution institutions centrally the u.s. supreme court but you're absolutely right that many decisions now are made at the lower court levels because the supreme court docket is getting smaller and smaller taking only perhaps two percent of the cases so it's very critical as nan aron of

the alliance for justice writes in our issue to deep in the progressive bench and to close the political intensity gap for example the right understands the power of the court to shape our political economic lives and i don't think progress is a fully grasp that power so we need to hold senators accountable to uphold progressive judges and their confirmations and we need to push hard to make sure that there is a bench of progressive jurists who understand that the rule of law and a fair and just judiciary is so critical to our country katrina by the way just we lost your video but your audio is coming through loud and clear so my apologies but we can continue the conversation here if that's alright with you absolutely i am. not i'm sure lewis powell somewhere is playing or playing. you know i do think you know i think sometimes it's very abstract for people to court and i often think that the important social issues like abortion or guns or firman of action get all

the attention when in fact if you think about the one and a half million women who worked at wal-mart who filed the class action discrimination suit who were just knocked out by this court who said they didn't have standing you can see how ordinary people's access to the courts which is so critical for justice in a system so dominated by corporations for ordinary people have access to the courts becomes critical and i think if we have you know another two three roberts can you imagine another two three scalia's another two three alito i think justice and access for people to the courts. will be a dying idea. this is this may seem like kind of an abstract question but i don't mean it that way is it possible that if there you know if romney wins or if the republicans take the senate hold the house or you know some variation there of that things may get so bad that they may get so

extreme you know for a couple more aledo those are school leaders were put on the school on the court the bat would produce the kind of of. response national response that we saw in the early thirty's you know with the with the f.d.r. ministration that that arguably obama hasn't had that kind of force b. i know it's interesting you ask that tom because i think i would have thought we would have seen it after the masterpiece of julian judicial activism when a supreme court stopped the voting in a democratic process in bush v gore in two thousand but after citizens united as you know there was trance partisan opposition to that decision independents republicans saw that as a nod to giving more corporations more power in our society when they already had so much so i think you're already seen as we write in the issue of view on the part of citizens that this court is not fair that it is so political and so politicized

and of course i'm not naïve the supreme court has always been political but now there is an extremism that has undercut the idea of rule of law that is so central to our country so yes there could be a terrible backlash and i think it would be destructive now of course movements are so critical to ensuring that decisions the court makes those that are civilized that are actually implemented but it becomes very hard when you see the rollback of . cultural economic social rights to have movements push them forward there's very little space for that and that's why i think this election is so critical because mitt romney's conception of justice of fairness of diversity is not one that encompasses support for voting rights or supports overturning citizens united or brings. organizing for labor back into the position it should be in this country absolutely i mean he's the original corporations are people buy from corporations are basically there you go control of an oval thank you so much for being thank you

thank you. coming up how does the republican party plan to feel like choosing and do they have it down to a science and a war on the nine easy steps to regain or a write in to the white house was going to get a journalist greg palast for that but. here is mitt romney trying to figure out the name of that thing that many americans call a donor. i'm sorry i'm just a guy who cares an awful lot of money you sir are a fool you know what that is my terror cells in your neighborhood all want to give us a defeat terrorism the only liberal the christian. can secure the borders but. you know the corporate media distracts us from what you and i should care about because they're a profit driven industry that sells

a sensationalistic garbage he calls it breaking news i'm abbie martin and we're going to break this that. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom are welcome to the big picture.

in screwed news down in florida governor rick scott is continuing his illegal purge of democratic voters but as the tampa bay times reports scott is having a very difficult time finding all those supposed illegal citizens who are allegedly engaging in a rampant voter fraud so far the state has only flagged one hundred eighty nine voters who have a questionable citizenship status of that only thirty eight had previously voted and that's in a state of eight million people so basically governor scott is launching this costly voter purge effort defending it in quasi legal battles and risking taking a lot of the legal citizens off the rolls in the process all of voter fraud that

may or may not have happened point zero zero zero zero zero four percent of the time clearly this isn't about voter fraud this is about rigging the election in favor of democrats and it's gone beyond florida now the republican national committee has been caught red handed trying to sabotage the democratic vote around the nation i had of this year's election brad freeman and brad blog reported the florida republican party cut ties with a political firm known as strategic allied consulting after was discovered that firm changed addresses on numerous voter registration forms to block newly registered democrats in voting in november scandals now spreading as at least ten counties in florida discovered these fraudulent registration forms and law enforcement authorities are getting involved in the matter and the republican national committee has also. ties with the firm which you gave three point one million dollars to register voters in swing states like nevada colorado north carolina and virginia unclear how much damage is election fraud may have done on

the elections in those states this is the latest blatant election fraud committed by the republican party which has been focused on nonexistent voter fraud over the last two years as an excuse to rig the elections with their voter suppression idea laws for more on who these ballot bandits are and how they might impact the election i'm joined by greg palast that's good of journals of the b.b.c. in the guardian and author of the book billionaires and balance bandits how to steal an election in nine easy steps and i might add what we can do to fight back against it greg great to see you. doctor so so scant you have a scandal here in the r. and c. about voter registration. oh boy that's just our just in time already written. because actually what i saw this is a great i've read this before in the chapter called the hunt for try it let me tell you who these guys are i've been tracking them for seventeen years sproule was created in under the payroll of these two guys and i've heard of the koch

brothers charles and david they had they have a company koch industries which until citizens united made franken corp's citizens that could vote it was illegal for corporations to put money into political campaigns so they used to cut out old triad corporation and triad then had a front group called the coalition for our children's future which they used to savage twenty five democrats twenty five million dollars wiping out the democrats taking over congress for newt gingrich you remember him got the spider brain and lucifer. illegal donations to campaigns and who set this up who is the third cut out nathan sproule in his operation so this goes way back that was a crime then they. by the way the ninety's wasn't ninety's so i've been following these guys with the cokes since back then so what they did was one of the things we talk about and doing as a ballot bandits is that what the billionaires do is they decriminalize their

felonious behavior but it was still a felony crime when the koch's did this with sproull it goes way back then that's not it in we followed them in two thousand and four organ and then we fall them again in now in florida understand what they're doing besides the games of of of you know we're going to change your registration cetera why are they putting a slight what they're doing is they're putting slight changes in addresses the reason they're doing that you combine that with another koch operation called the themis machine and i know it sounds it sounds like. but there's no the koch's have something called themis which is a data mining operation which they're working with coach with karl rove. who has something called data trust which is under contract with the r. and c. the koch's didn't want to be under have any control from the r. and c. use these two machines and they use this to do what's called caging they send letters to people at these addresses but they know the dresses are on so when the

letters come back it says do not for do not correct address when it comes back undelivered and undeliverable they challenge the voter the voter doesn't know until they show up and if they're an absentee voter about a third of florida voters are absentee that when they when those absentee ballots go in the voter doesn't know that they lost their vote because they were challenged so you have to understand sproule not as some rogue that the g.o.p.'s to get rid of but as a central operator who for the seventeen years i've been tracking him has been a contractor for the koch brothers karl rove and the republican national committee as part of their general operation of massive vote challenges so it's not some weird rogue operator yeah they're treating him knowledge well we had no idea that this. we had his picture up here so you know that the that this guy was doing this kind of nasty stuff right it's off like he's doing something in a corner but understand there he is see here's how it works you can't remove him from the karl rove and the koch operations because what happens one of the whole

point of billionaires and ballot bandits is to show how the koch's and the guys behind karl rove like the iceman singer paul singer the vultures these no i mean given the names like that they their bankers gave them the names. we're saying that they've been doing this systematically with massive amount of money from these billionaires and by the way the reason i had bobby kennedy write the introduction and a chapter in the book is he's a law for professor he can say something i can't he says this is a crime this is a go to jail crime his daddy wrote the law the voting rights act he said this is a felony and you should be in jail for these things he says karl rove and say he's we are taking it not to sproule some schmuck that they found that they pay millions to he's the cutout man as i've explained koch hired him to do dirty work aren't see hard to do dirty work but it's all part of a larger plan to challenge votes on a mass basis and so that's why we call out a steel election ninety steps because that's literally one way of doing it maisie

earlier we were talking on our radio program and you said the already in florida then tens of thousands of voters have been knocked off the rolls don't even know about it and we're i mean right now the media is reporting that rick scott might start up his voter purge or the current secretary of state of florida makes katherine harris look like thomas jefferson ok which is scary and the same trick lot of people you know know me as the guy that busted out katherine harris knocked off thousands of black folks off the voter rolls calling them phil lesh in two thousand in the election of two thousand their only crime was voting while black and so as a result that's how bush got elected now we're bush v gore again on stare. what's happening is even the same old filon purge trick for example i got the new purge list you have a guy named robert moore believe it or not there black people named robert moore some guy named robert moore committed

a felony crime somewhere in america so they look for robert moore in florida and knocked off all these robert morris but they also knocked off mrs bobby moore mr robert moore commits a crime mrs bobby moore you actually see right in the book now the actual lists how do you know or out of the republicans know as they're doing this down in florida that they're actually taking out voters who are likely to vote democratic oh well let's put it this way right next to mrs bobby moore is a name it says b l a because on on all florida voter registrations the race is listed and they're using this is the data match it didn't matter that the first two names didn't match by their algorithms there's a oh that's how robert gets away he changes the name to bobby and is six but since they're both b l eight we know that mrs bobby moore is a criminal now who gives them these datasets and the answer goes back to karl rove and data trusts the koch brothers in the themis data mining operation and

a guy named ken langone who's a one million dollar donor to the romney campaign he's the guy that the first black out list for katherine harris so the saying i was i a corporation of texas it was a corporation called database technologies which operate in texas but they actually are based in florida but but only put together by ken langone of new york who gave the list to katherine harris and said here's your criminals and by the way their own experts then and now are saying we know that these aren't actually felons they could be felons well so could so could karl rove payback that in his case we know he's guilty but this is the gimmick and by the way how many people are innocent on this list of tens of thousands the answers every single one because i went to the attorney general just like you checked with the alien so-called alien list. and there they couldn't find any none zero and i said so

because if you found the felon voter they would arrest them they go back to jail they couldn't find any but they're still on the purge with the innocent people still in the purchase but they haven't found any but they're purging tens of thousands and fully a third of these people are going to vote by mail and they won't even know that their vote doesn't get counted and the other two thirds who show up they'll be they'll be told oh there's something wrong here fill out this provisional ballot write stead so what happens when they fill out the provisional ballot they think they voted they go home and and it goes well seven hundred sixty seven thousand and twenty three that's three quarters of a million provisional ballots were cast in zero eight and thrown in the garbage now whose ballots kennedy and i worked with harvard statisticians and the and the u.s. civil rights commission the analysis was that if you are black the chance that your vote will be spoiled or thrown away on technical grounds is nine hundred percent

higher than if you're white five hundred percent higher if you're latino and if you are. a native american forget about it and i know you think the native american the result doesn't count but it's concentrated in nevada in colorado new mexico arizona where you have the big congressional and senate races which are down to the wire like this so when we talk about stealing elections i don't think so much even about obama we've got seven to twelve senate races right on the edge i don't care is elected but i would like it not to be an unelected hunta chosen by karl rove's data trust machine i mean greg palast you're brilliant as always thank you thank you great work you're doing and the book again is billionaires and billionaires their reality and erick going to go there you know billionaires and ballot bandits how to steal an election in nine easy steps with bobby kennedy and a fifty page comic book by ted rall don't leave out my great penman there you go thanks a lot right. after the break camden new jersey has one of the high. crime rates in

america the city has laid off its two hundred plus police officers why are city officials making such a bizarre move and is it really the best way for the citizen i want to.

let. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harvey welcome to the big picture.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything is ok. i'm tom hardy welcome to the big picture. you. going to.